'A' CAMPAIGN OF VOLUNTARY. NATIONAL ECONOMY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1918, Page 7

'A' CAMPAIGN OF VOLUNTARY. NATIONAL ECONOMY.

To the Editor. Sir, —It is earnestly desired and highly desirable that the press, teachers, clergy, picture theatres, civic authorities, local institutions, and those who control Government Departments, may succeed in inducing the people of New Zealand to enter whole-heartedly upon a national campaign of voluntary domestic economy. The nation is not so much concerned as to whether an individual may choose to squander his own fortune, for money so dissipated does not disappear like wasted labor or products, which are literally lost. Unlike the fortune of the individual, the wealth of the State belongs to the people who do not 'lesire and cannot afford to lose it. It will be infin'.tely more to our credit and more profitable to the nation that we should voluntarily accomplish by loyal patriotic campaign of personal economy, what otherwise will, in the immediate future, he forced upon us, either by legislation Bor by a disastrous world famine. The eli'ect of auch a calamity cannot be wholly averted, and may be minimised only by the exercise of strict economy and a supreme effort in production. Just to give practical form to what we have in view in thus asking those in authoritv or in positions of influence to inaugurate this voluntary economy campaign in New Zealand, and thus help to win the war, and to counteract its awful ] aftermath of starvation, we will point I out a few items in everv-day use as exinmples of what may be accomplished by the combined will of the people. We have about 200.000 households in this little country, and if in each of these homes of five persons there is an average daily waste of only one ounce of buffer, one ounce of sugar, one ounce of tea, four ounces of bread, and four ounces of meat, then there i 9 a total vearlv loss to the world's muck needed supply, which, without the figure's, is almost beyond belief. These apparently insignficanl quantities wasted in each New Zealand household daily makes a gross annual loss of 2000 tona of butter, being the yield from 32,000 cows; O'tiOOO seijmty-pound 'bags of sugar; 4af>.ftoo ten-pound boxes of tea; :;ni) nnq bushels of wheat, being the yield ~f i(1,0(10 acres; and 300,000 fat wethers or 2fi'.<ma fat bullocks. These quantities are more than sufficient to feed the, whole of our New Zealan 1 Expeditionary Forces whether in camps or in hospitals, on transports or at the front. If placed upon the European market they would feed 100.000 starving people, and incidentally bring in an additional million and a quarter sterling to the Dominion. We graze or feed upon corn nearly half a million hordes in this country. and it is safe to assume that about 1(10,00(1 of them serve no useful or economic purpose, and do not pay foi their keep- Thus again we fail to seiul their equivalent of an additional 100,000 bullocks to relieve a world stricken with hunger, and at the same time to strengthen our resources to the extent of another million and a half sterling. If onlv '20.000 of our car owners run but five miles a day for pleasure we will burn a quarter of a million cases of benzine in the year, possibly quite sufficient to meet all our industrial and commercial miuirements. Instances innumerable raa'v lie cited whereof the results would tend to make thoughtful people think; others may be incapable of exercising thought or unwilling to do so until the example of their fellows bringthe necessity home to them- We have purposely refrained from laying stress upon the saving of money by the individual, because, as already stated, this . does not «o much concern us as a nation, but, as it will at least appeal to our ( traditional instinct of money-saving, it may be stated that the added value of these small savings would amount each year to several million pounds sterling; enough, in fr.ct, to pay our customs duties, land tax, income tax, and death duties, leaving us a free people indeed, , and that in more senses than one, There are interesting sidelights on the question ' which eould profitably be made a subject ' of public discussion. For instance, there 1 are many persons well qualified to judge, 1 who believe that the present surprising ' virility of the Herman people is not due to an ordinary food scuppiv but rather to a salutary condition of enforced abstinence- Their energies are not thus wasted upon the worse than useless effort to produce, transport, consume, and assimilate more food than is necessary for their sustenance. The result may easily be Hint they are in the enjoyment of abounding health and possess a greater capacity than ever for making a, su- ' preme and sustained effort. Public at- J tem.ion is persistently directed by those in authority to the increasing cost of ' the necessaries of life ; what concerns ' us most in this country, is not the high ' cost of living, but the cost of high living, among rich and poor alike. Thoughtful men and women who may realise the ' pleasures and profits to be derived from ' "plain living and high thinking," and 1 their effect upon the individual and the ' nation, are invited to commune-ate their 1 thoughts upon this subject to the editor of their own home newspaper, upon ' whom the people rely for guidance, to j ,a much greater degree than they yet . teers. If the rank and file of vohm- ! ters in this national movement could be ' directed bv :i m»n of outstanding ability ' one who has made a life's study of the subject, like Mr. Malcolm Fraser, our N Government Statistician, <ts success v would be iissured. Meantime we may bo ? encouraged by t'he thought that in every j movement a determined following is ai- , ways stronger than its leader. In this cose results ean be judged only by the f amount of publicity accorded to the 1 scheme, and for this we must depend 1 solely upon our newspapers and other f helpers. [

J. 11. STEVENS, Palraerston Nortli, February 18.